Education - Aphrodisiacs

Aphrodisiacs

Ever hear the one about the farmer who had a bull that wouldn't breed? The vet gave him some medicine, he fed it to the bull, and that same afternoon, the beast went out and serviced four cows. A neighbor, noticing the goings-on, leaned over the back fence and asked the farmer what was in the medicine. "I don't know," the farmer said, "but it tasted like licorice."

Hopes Eternal

Potions that heighten sensual love or enhance sexual prowess have been sought after for thousands of years. Almost any food, drug or drink you can imagine has at one time or another been used to call down the gods of love - from substances as utterly ordinary as an apple to those as profoundly weird as hippopotamus snout. In fact, several species of plants and animals have been driven to the brink of extinction after word got around that their leaves or their livers had the power to arouse.

How does anything develop a reputation as an aphrodisiac? Sometimes it’s for embarrassingly obvious reasons, like its shape (bananas, carrots and asparagus spears have all been used as love potions). Or somebody makes a pseudoscientific observation: After Ireland's population boomed, the English concluded that the potato must be an aphrodisiac. Sometimes the mere fact that something is exotic, rare or expensive may be enough: When the Europeans discovered tomatoes in South America, they decided the deep red globes must be the forbidden fruit of Eden and dubbed them "love apples."

But practically speaking, does any of this stuff actually work? Well, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a pretty humorless approach to the question and, in a ruling effective January 6, 1990, banned the interstate commerce or over-the-counter sale of "any product that bears labeling claims that it will arouse or increase sexual desire or that it will improve sexual performance " In the FDA’s view, there is no over-the-counter food, lotion, potion or medication that fits that bill.

Orgasmic Chocolates and Other Delectables

Still, taking a more mild-mannered approach to the question, it could be argued that there are some things that really do seem to arouse some people, at least sometimes. Strictly speaking, no food has ever been proven to be an aphrodisiac. But there are still reasons why some foods may enhance one's sexual pleasure.

Chocolate, that much-loved Valentine's Day gift, contains a substance that accumulates in the pleasure centers of the brain and thereby mimics what occurs during sex, says George Arrnelagos, Ph.D., an anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and author of Consuming Passions. Other foods long associated with love-like oysters, eggs and caviar-may enhance sexual desire simply because they are good sources of protein and may therefore tend to contribute to a general sense of health and well-being.

Still, adds Dr. Arinelagos: "Almost any food has the properties of an aphrodisiac because the very act of eating causes an increase in the pulse rate and the blood pressure, raising the body temperature and sometimes even producing sweating - changes that occur with orgasm."

Substances with a... Ahem ... Reputation

Sexual arousal is not triggered solely by plumbing and physiology, any more than love is triggered by hormones. If truffles and champagne seem to put you in the mood, who's to say they don't?

"The brain," notes Dr. Annelagos, "is the most important sexual organ. If you think saltines will work, then you've got a good, cheap aphrodisiac."

But there are a few other substances that may work a little better.

Barking Up the Right Tree

Yohimbine, a chemical derived from the bark of the African yohimbe tree, has a long folk history as a love potion. Maybe all those "folks" were on to something - it really does seem to work in about a third of the impotent men who try it. It recently has even become a respectable prescription drug for the treatment of male impotence.

Getting to the Root of the Matter

For 5,000 years, the Chinese have sworn by ginseng, a gnarled woodland root, as a sovereign remedy for more illnesses than you probably knew existed. And for just as long they've touted it as an aphrodisiac. (One recent computer search found that ginseng is listed as a folk remedy for. 82 different disorders, ranging from diabetes to poisonous centipede stings. In fact, the "panax" in Chinese ginseng's scientific name, Panax ginseng, means "cure-all.")

U.S. farmers and "sangers" (woodland gatherers) still export $40 million worth of American ginseng a year to the Orient, where- people chew the stuff even if they're not sick, in the belief that it will increase their feeling of general vitality and well-being.

There is some bona fide scientific evidence suggesting that ginseng ran reduce the stress effects of temperature extremes, strenuous exercise, weird diets and other unpleasantness It's also been shown to have some positive effects on conditions ranging from depression to ulcers. But does it really work as an aphrodisiac? Well, rats fed ginseng extract do demonstrate stepped-up mating behavior-but it's not clear whether that has any relevance at all to human behavior. One modern herbalist, Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., of Purdue University, says flatly in The New Honest Herbal.- "There is no evidence of enhanced sexual experience or potency resulting from its use."

On the other hand, it's difficult to completely dismiss 5,000 years of human experience. It could be that ginseng exerts an indirect effect on one's love life simply because it fights fatigue and makes you feel a little spunkier. (Studies have shown, for instance, that it increases running speed in soldiers and reduces drowsiness in night-shift workers.)

"Any improved sense of well-being would certainly tend to make one feel more sexual," observes Gordon S. Walbroehl, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Family Practice at Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. "If a patient wishes to use ginseng in modest amounts, I would not see any problem." But strictly speaking, it's not really an aphrodisiac, he notes.

One caution: Chinese ginseng (P ginseng, which is more potent than the American variety, P quinquefolius) is so expensive, and quality control is so poor, that you can never be sure what you're getting when you buy "ginseng" tea, powder or capsules. In one study of 54 commercial ginseng products, 60 percent of the stuff analyzed was worthless, and a quarter contained no ginseng at all.

Vitamin E: Diet Get Your Hopes Up

Alpha Tocopherol, or vitamin E, has a widespread but ill-deserved reputation as an aphrodisiac. Why?

Perhaps, suggests June Reinisch, Ph.D., director of the Kinsey Institute, its because of widely reported studies that showed that the testicles and ovaries of rats deprived of vitamin E begin to atrophy. When the animals are returned to a diet rich in vitamin E, their genitalia return to normal.

But does that make vitamin E an aphrodisiac? Not by a long shot. Humans whose bodies are deficient in vitamin E do tend to have reduced sex drive but if your vitamin E levels are normal, adding supplements to your diet will have absolutely no effect on your sex drive, Dr. Reiffisch says.

Love Potions by Prescription

In recent years, pharmaceutical research labs have begun the search for reliable "love drugs," and some of the medications they've developed really do work. Unfortunately, most of them are available only by prescription (if they're available yet at all) and tend to be used mainly as treatments for sexual disorders rather than as tonics to enhance an already zesty sex life.

Far from Depressing

One antidepressant, Wellbutrin, has been found to warm up the libidos and improve the sexual performances of many of the men and women who take it. (Many other antidepressants do just the opposite.) In one study conducted at the Crenshaw Clinic, a sex therapy clinic in San Diego, more than 60 percent of the depressed patients who took the drug reported positive effects. Follow-up studies at other clinics haven't been quite so rousing, however. Out of 62 patients given the drug by a Philadelphia psychiatrist, for instance, only a dozen or so found it added any octane to their sex lives.

Don't forget, of course, that these people were all clinically depressed and suffering from low sex drive when they started taking the drug. If you have a normal, robust sex drive, says Washington, D.C., psychiatrist Elmer Gardner, M.D., Wellbutrin won't improve it. It also won't have any effect on men whose impotence is caused by physical rather than psychological difficulties. On the other hand, if you are depressed and feel sexless, you might consider asking your doctor about it.

Injecting Performance

Prostaglandin-E is a vasodilator, meaning that this drug works its wonders by causing blood vessels to dilate, thereby boosting blood flow to a specific bodily neighborhood. When it's injected directly into the penis, it can produce a triumphant erection within 5 minutes. Injected? Sorry, but yes. Prostaglandin-E is one of a small class of new drugs now being used to treat male impotence that must be delivered directly to the member in question in order to work.

"It really doesn't hurt," claims University of California, Irvine, endocrinologist Grant Gwinup, M.D. "The needle is tiny and lubricated with silicone, so you get only the slightest discomfort. "

For men suffering from physical or psychological impotence, the inconvenience may be worth it. Dr. Gwinup says it's helped all but 2 of the 50 patients he's prescribed it for, and after several years of fairly widespread use, no serious side effects have been reported.

Biochemistry to the Rescue

Sexual arousal is a marvelously complicated chain reaction of chemical and physiological changes. But the very last neurotransmitter in the chain, the thing that actually puts the icing on the cake-producing vaginal wetness in women and erection in men -is a mild-mannered biochemical called vasoactive intestinal peptide, or VIP. If it was possible to create a synthetic version of VIP in the lab, then apply it directly to the vagina or the penis, would it simulate sexual arousal?

Apparently so-at least, that's the way it looks in preliminary studies conducted by a small California biotech company called Senetek, which has been testing a couple of VIP concoctions to do just that. (The company makes it clear, though, that these drugs simulate physical arousal only, not sexual desire.)

For women, VIP is delivered in the form of a vaginal cream, which provides a more "natural" lubrication than other gels and creams, according to information provided by Senetek. For men (unfortunately) the drug must be delivered via a small injection at the base of the penis. In clinical studies conducted in Denmark involving 200 men, the shots helped those with impotence caused by vascular problems (38 percent got erections), diabetes (50 percent), psychological problems (78 percent) and damage to nerves (88 percent).

Not Just for the Heart

Nitroglycerin, well known as an angina drug, produces an erection within a few minutes. To work this wonder, it must be applied directly to the penis in the form of a paste. There is no need for an injection of any kind. (Taking it in pill form doesn't seem to work.) Physiologically, the drug works as a vasodilator, boosting blood flow to the penis. In one study conducted by pharmacologist James Owen, Ph.D., of the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital in Kingston, Ontario, it produced erections in 25 of 26 impotent men who hadn't been visited by a single erection in the three months prior to the study.

But don't get too excited just yet. These experiments were conducted in a controlled clinical setting -the men were surrounded by an array of measuring devices and guys in white coats. And they did not actually put these nitro- erections to use by having intercourse with a woman.

"We just have no idea if this drug would really be useful in an actual partner-to-partner situation, since the partner would absorb the drug through the skin and might not tolerate it as well as the man does," says Dr. Owen.

It's been reported, for instance, that at least one woman got a tremendous headache after having sex with a man using nitroglycerin paste. (Nitro can cause headaches in people who use it as an angina drug, too.)

Other drawbacks: Nitroglycerin may interact in unknown ways with other medications a person is taking, which is part of the reason it's available only by prescription. And so far, it hasn't officially been registered for use in impotence, so your doctor couldn't prescribe it for that purpose. On the other hand, you should definitely not try whipping up your own do-it-yourself concoction of nitro paste.

"It's a powerful drug that can cause profound side effects, including a serious drop in blood pressure," says Dr. Owen.

The bottom line here, at least for now: Have a love apple instead.